MOR In Focus

Memory on Glass: D.F. Barry on Standing Rock, 1878-1891

MOR In Focus

Memory on Glass: D.F. Barry on Standing Rock, 1878-1891

David F. Barry photographed Native American men and women, frontier scouts, soldiers, trappers, missionaries and other pioneers, recording the panorama of people who populated the northern plains in the late 19th century. Barry recorded forts, battlefields, and the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in present-day North Dakota.

Barry developed long-term relationships with some of his Lakota and Dakota subjects, who called him Icastinyanka Cikala Hanzi, “Little Shadow Catcher.” This exhibition examines his career from a photographer’s assistant to a professional image-maker in his own right.

A veritable list of the people who played important parts in the story of the radically changing character of Dakota Territory, both American Indian, and Euro-American, are presented here. Chiefs Sitting Bull and Gall and Joseph of the Nez Perce, George Custer, and his army associates, and many others are all represented in Barry’s voluminous portfolio.

Memory on Glass examines Barry’s work as he recorded the creation of the Standing Rock Reservation and the ongoing controversies that continue to surround American Indians and their relationship with the U.S. government to this day.

Produced by MOR Exhibitions, Memory on Glass will feature new research about Barry’s life by Museum of the Rockies' Curator of History, Michael Fox.